The Alternate Choice
by Kattastropi
Summary: This is one way Bioware can fix that horrible ending.


_I know a lot of people will/have done this, but I also have a solution bioware should have used instead. Oh and bioware, EA if you see this and like it, please take it. I don't care about the rights as long as I get a better ending! One where past choices actually matter! _

_So I was thinking we should only get this forth option if they were fully paragon or fully renegade with all reputation points and those stupid EMS? points. You need to have the option of all three horrible choices so yeah you'll need that too. When you read this there will be a lot ofa places where the ending can vary depending on choices, like if you saved Wrex and the bug queen (twice!) or not. If you decided to help the Geth and bring peace between the Quarians and them, or not. Even if you cured the geneophage or not. If you kept Samara or picked her daughter... Whether you gave the paragon choice for Edi to model herself after or the Renegade. Even who you picked to come with you on this final mission. I feel like those are the most important choices, I'm sure they could find some other choices they could fit in here._

_This is what a female paragon with a romance with Garrus, who saved everyone you could possibly save would look like._

The mind numbing pain was unimaginable. She felt like she had been through the -what had Garrus called this war? Meat grinder?- yes, the meat grinder and back again. A soft groan escaped cracked, bloodied lips and she struggled to her hands and knees. Every cut, every burn wailing for her to ease, it was a drone of noise she would not heed. That piece of metal in her side was still oozing her crimson life, a thunderous _drip, drip, drip _on the chrome reflective floor that joined in the rhythmic tempo of her heart that was pounding in her ears. She blinked at her own reflection, at first only finding a blur but then the nightmare she looked was plainly seen. Gashes all over her face, dirt and blood, her matted hair. It was little wonder how she was alive.

She could hear what Garrus would say if he saw her now, _'Damn Cadence, when I told you to come back to me alive I didn't mean like this...' _

She closed her eyes, not willing the anguish in her heart to consume her. He had been with her on Earth, fighting their way to the tower of light that was would lead to the Catidel and their salvation. So had Liara. There couldn't be any way they were alive. She had heard so from those on the communications. Everyone had died. No! No, he had to be alive. Anderson had survived, still was... below this platform he rested safely with her last omni-gell. Garrus was alive as were all her friends and she had to keep fighting to finish this for them. She would sacrifice everything to see this through, knowing they would have a life. _I'm sorry Garrus, I don't think I'll be making it back from this one._ She gritted her teeth trying to get to her feet.

"Wake up," a synthetic voice said and she looked to find the ghostly silhouette of a boy. His body was constantly moving and shifting, looking as if to be made of raw energy.

"What? Where am I?" She struggled up, stumbling before getting her feet soundly under her. She clutched the wound at her side as she chanced a look around.

The boy... thing, whatever he was answered, "The Citadel. It's my home."

Vision clearing further she looked ahead to the strange diamond structure made of metal with the blue beam of light going through the center. She could see her allies and friends, the galaxy raging its war with the reapers all around them, and then there was earth with its sinister orange-red glow. They were holding their own just barely, all of them waiting for her to end this.

"Who are you?"

"I am the catalyst."

She blinked, letting go of her side in surprise. "I thought the Citadel was the catalyst."

"No, the Citadel is a part of me." Why was this glowing ghost child starting to look like that child that had haunted her dreams? Why did he look like that human child? She could see the outline of his face in the blue energy... his hoodie...

She pushed the thoughts from her mind, knowing she needed to focus. Her mind could simply be trying to find something to make this blue glow understandable, like that time in the geth systems and the boxes. "I need to stop the reapers. Do you know how I can do that?"

"The reapers are mine. I control them." The glowing child turned from her and started walking to the metal diamond structure. "They are my solution."

She glanced back as an allied ship exploded from the red light of a reaper before limping after this... catalyst. _How can he think this is a solution?_ She couldn't fathom it. Maybe it was a solution for something else. "Solution? To what?"

"Choas," he stated simply and it reminded of her of what that reaper she destroyed on Tali's home world had said. _How is this not chaos?_ If anything the war with the reapers had made the chaos worse. Before she could ask the glowing child continued, "You bring it on yourselves. The created will always rebel against their creators." Panting in pain, she forced herself to keep following. "But we found a way to stop that from happening. A way to restore order for the next cycle."

"By wiping out organic life?" Could this... thing even hear itself? It didn't make sense.

The child stopped and she happily did as well as he turned to look at her. "No, we harvest the older civilizations, leaving the younger ones alone." He started walking again. "Just as we left your people alive the last time we were here."

She failed to see how that was any real difference. "But you killed the rest..."

"We helped them ascend so they could make way for new life, storing the old life in reaper form." He was looking up at the battle, watching as a reaper moved close by.

She had realized during this short walk that this child was an AI, an AI that was defending all the bloodshed and misery for all current life with this twisted dark view. Glancing at the reaper the child was staring at she said, "I think we'd rather keep our own form."

"No, you can't..." He looked to her. "Without us to stop it, Synthetics would destroy all organics. We created the cycle to ensure that never happens. That's the solution."

How had this AI come to this horrible solution? How would he know synthetics would destroy all organics? Some calculations? How could a synthetic AI decide all this? Didn't the organics get to decide their own future? So many questions and none of it made sense. Not to mention, was that smugness she heard in his voice? She was fairly sure it was. And what about the geth? Didn't she prove that they and the Quarians could live in peace?

She shook her head slightly. Could she get this AI to see reason? "But you're taking away our future, we have no hope. Without hope we might as well be machines. Programmed to do what we are told."

"You don't need hope. The fact that you are standing here, the first organic ever proves it, but it also proves the solution won't work anymore."

_No hope?_ She couldn't even wrap her head around all this. "So now what?"

"That depends on you."

"What do you mean?"

The AI child turned. "The crucible changed me, created new... possibilities. But I can't make them happen and I won't."

It sounded to her like he simply wouldn't, not that he couldn't. It was starting to make her blood boil. "Make what happen?"

"What you came here to do... you want to destroy us. You can wipe out all synthetic life if you want... Including the geth." As if somewhat worried about this choice the AI reminded her, "Even you are partly synthetic ." So in other words she would die. That was _great_... but it wasn't a surprise.

She didn't like thinking about destroying the geth either... or Edi... "But the reapers will be destroyed?"

"Yes, but the peace won't last. Soon your children will create synthetics, and then the chaos will come back."

"Maybe... if it's the best choice," she huffed, getting frustrated. It didn't matter if there was a _chance_ that this chaos would come back. The fact was there was still a chance for the opposite to happen as well, that was all that mattered. What right did this AI have in this decision? Especially when it had done such a bang up job of it for... god, just thinking about all the lives before, ended by this AI and his reapers made her sick. Each reaper was a different planet... a different species.

"Or do you think you can control us?"

Her eyes widened, and she looked up at the metal diamond structure. Could they really be controlled? "Huh. So... the Illusive Man was right after all?"

"Yes, but he could never have taken control... because we already controlled him." And there again was that smug tone of his. Her fists tightened at her side, breathing in and out to calm herself.

"But I can...?"

"You will die. You will control us, but you will lose everything you have." Again with her death, but that sounded like a better option than killing all synthetic life. The geth would still live... Edi would be able to stay with Jeff.

But what was with this AI? It sounded like he was stressing the fact that she would die again. Was he trying to stall her? Make her hesitate because both options so far would end her life and he thought she wouldn't do it?

Her eyes narrowed, studying the AI for any sign of a lie. "But the reapers will obey me?"

"Yes... There is another solution."

"Yeah?" This she just had to hear.

"Synthesis."

Her brow would have creased, but making facial movements was starting to hurt. "And that is?"

The AI child looked to the blue light before them. "Add your energy to the crucible's. Everything you are will be absorbed, and then sent out... The chain reaction will combine all synthetic and organic life into a new frame work. A new... DNA."

And she would die. So that was pretty much settled. Any of the three choices she would not be coming back from. But this solution didn't make her all that happy either. Either she destroy all synthetics, control the reapers, or she alter everyone to be more or less the same. Did it have to be only these three solutions? None of them were all that different. They all looked like the same only others dressed prettier than the others. Not to mention, making everyone both synthetic and organic didn't mean there still would not be horrible fighting between those of organic origin and those of synthetics. Hell, even the organics proved that no life was perfect with their bitter wars that didn't make any sense when you boiled things down and got to the real issues.

She looked to the ground, the hopelessness of the situation finally taking its toll. After everything she had done. Finally getting all the species of the galaxy to work together and for what? A false victory dictated by this... AI? "I... don't know."

"Why not? Synthetics are already part of you. Can you imagine your life without them?"

"And there will be peace?" What stopped the reapers? Other than them taking little pieces of her into themselves nothing was really changing.

"The cycle will end. Synthesis is the final evolution of life, but we need each other to make it happen. You have a difficult decision... Releasing the energy of the crucible will end the cycle, but it will also destroy the mass relays. The paths are open."

She noticed he didn't answer her question. And again with the cycles! Everything was only a cycle to this AI, and one would think he would have told her beforehand that if she did anything the mass relays would be destroyed. It didn't matter what decision she made all her allies would be stranded here, on earth. There was little food for what humans remained to begin with, and many of these species couldn't even eat earth food either. What of the families they were leaving behind on other planets? All these thoughts were making her already queasy stomach worse. How could she choose? While saving all of them she was also damning them all to a different sort of hell. What choice was that really? It wasn't. The AI had plotted and calculated in his head all possible solutions coming up with these three. Simple, clean cut. But life wasn't this simple. It couldn't, shouldn't be solved like that.

There had to be another way. There simply had to be. She couldn't believe all that she had fought for would come down to what this damn AI deemed the best. And what of these cycles. All he kept saying was this cycle would end. Would it start another? Then more reapers not of this galaxy would come to straighten things out? Who even made this AI? All these questions and more were maddening and she was losing time.

She shifted her gaze out to space where the battle continued on without her, unknowing all of it came down to these three choices she made. What would they want? Now that a peace had been settled with the geth and were even helping the Quarians settle on their old home world, would they want all synthetics destroyed? Crap, their suits were made of synthetics, without them they would die. So no, not likely. Besides, up to this point she had done everything not only for organic life but also for the geth... and Legion was a part of all of them now. She couldn't do that to them. Which left only two solutions... Or did it?

This AI was just that, an AI. She looked to her omni-tool. Could she hack it? She was no tech genius like Tali, but she had learned a few things from her Quarian friend. With the source of the reapers standing right next to her, could she hack him and reprogram him to see what he was doing was wrong? He said he wouldn't do anything, but could she force him to help? Make him control the reapers, pull them back and instead of following this hideous cycle, maybe even get him to protect life... not just organic but synthetics like the geth as well. Maybe they could keep the peace? Okay that last one was a stretch, but if she could get her omni-tool to work one last time...

As the AI child started to walk away, she held up her arm, fingers willing the thing to work. It flickered to life, but kept flickering before suddenly disappearing. _Come on... one more time, I just need one mor-_ She slapped the fried armor and the familiar orange holograph came to life without flickering. Now how should she go about this? It couldn't be anything to intricate; she simply didn't have the skill for that. So maybe... a simple virus that tampered with this cycle perspective... Damn what she wouldn't give for Edi right now. She would know what to do, but it couldn't be helped.

She sighed, not exactly sure where to even start. Maybe if she forced a connection with whatever energy the child was, and by forced she would put her hand through it. She didn't know what the AI would do if she suddenly lashed out like that -not that she even could, standing was a chore, the idea of going after the AI made her dizzy. _Here goes nothing. _ She limped towards him, quicker than before, trying to remain silent and all the same hoping he had programming inside the energy or could establish a connection to whatever made him. Hearing her... or was it sensing? The AI child turned, and she could almost imagine the surprised look on his face when she put her omni-tool on (and a little through) his head. The holograms started to go crazy with data filling the screens that kept popping up, before she could touch it everything lighted up with a bright blinding light for a few seconds. When she could finally see she picked one of the screens that popped up.

"What are you doing?" the AI child asked.

"I'm making a new solution..." She would have shrugged, but she feared how much it would hurt. Not to mention she was sort of busy trying to find some weakness she could use or program she could turn. "You should know by now that this is what I do, look at the options others give me and forge a different path if I don't like them."

It went to step away, but she followed. "But you can't do that. This is the deemed choices you must make."

"By who, you?" She wasn't one to be harsh, always trying to see the best in people and even machines, but she couldn't help the sneer that was forming on her lips. "I think the fact that you're an AI deciding what's best for organics and life in general defeats the purpose. You say you're protecting us... that all life would cease, but how do you know this?"

"We simply do," the AI child couldn't move any more, she had managed to freeze it before her. "Our creators programmed us to protect organics at any cost; we calculated that if things continued with synthetics all organic life would die..."

"And your solution is to kill the most advanced organics and let the younger ones live, only to do it again when they are advanced? The solution is flawed... your programming is flawed." She shook her head, angered that so many had to die because of this. "Protect at any cost? Seriously? I don't think they meant at the cost of lives."

"You can't do this."

"Watch me," she snapped, focusing on the very programming issue he himself had given her. _Protect at any cost... even I can see loop holes in that one. What were they thinking?_

All she knew was that this tech was amazing... it was almost short circuiting her omni-tool and for these reapers to be doing this not only in their galaxy but multiple... She couldn't imagine what sort of civilization the creators must have had. If she didn't find a way through all this information she was going to bleed out without accomplishing anything. Or the fleet and all those on Earth would die...

"We won't allow you to do this."

Her eyes narrowed on the AI. "How will you stop me?"

"Shepard..." Her eyes widened, head jerking to where she had come from.

She couldn't believe it. It couldn't be possible. How could the Illusive man be standing there? He shot himself in the head! There couldn't be a way he was here. "H-How? You were dead!"

With a wave of his hand a violet bionic blast hit her and sent her flying down the path that led her to the blue beam. "I told you resistance was futile."

Groaning, she rolled to her front and wheezed in pain. "What? You... never said... that."

"Look beyond this form, you'll see, Shepard. I told you one day that you would be one of us."

Squinting, she looked at him... his eyes glowing red and the synthetic parts creeping further along his body, covering most of his face. His voice was... different. No longer sounding like the Illusive man... but... She hissed, "Harbinger."

"Yes... I've assumed direct control of this fragile human body." The Illusive Man, no, Harbinger started to walk towards the AI child. "It was difficult, what with part of his brain gone... but he is mostly synthetic. It was enough to get a hold."

She forced herself to her hands and knees, breathing heavy and pained. Damn-it. Her gun had fallen off the side of the path, going who knew where... How was she going to defeat him? She had no guns and her omni-tool was shot due to the bionic blast. She could hardly move... What was she thinking, there was hardly any fight left in her. She could only take so much before all this started taking its toll. She had lost the war. Everyone who depended on her would die. Her eyes filled with tears, blurring her image in the chrome. _I failed all of them... _Her fists clenched, knuckles white. God how she had failed them. _Garrus... I'm sorry._

"So... what now?" she asked, willing herself to stay strong in her final moments.

"We'll choose for you," the AI child said and Harbinger started walking towards her.

Not wanting to be so pathetic during her last moments she struggled to her feet. "What is that?"

"Synthesis."

She frowned. "Why? Why not kill me and continue your pointless cycle?"

"It's in organics best interests."

"Right... yours as well. If I destroy all synthetics you're gone. If I control you then you are practically slaves to me." She snorted, "The only reason you pushed synthesis is because it's in your best interest, not organics." She shook her head as she tried to maneuver away from the middle and towards the control pathway. Best thing she could do was keep them both talking. "What did you do to Anderson? I left him alive."

Harbinger kept advancing. "I killed him."

"You monster." She nearly lost it, wanting to attack the new enemy (or old depending how you looked at it) before her. "Was that necessary? He was hurt!"

"He may have come up here to interfere."

"Right..." she drawled, "And it's in organics best interest..."

She imagined that if he was still the Illusive Man he would have shrugged, but he didn't. "It was in the way, and every moment spent talking or fighting more of the organics die. I would think you would be pleased."

She glanced sideways and backwards to make sure she wasn't about to step off the side, though the thought had crossed her mind. "If you honestly think that then you haven't learned one thing about me or humans. Amazing! Especially when you took so many and turned them into goo for your project on the collector home base."

"You're angry," the AI child walked towards her, joining Harbingers own advancement.

"You think? You're killing my people and countless friends from other races all in the name of protecting organics." She snorted. "What a bunch of bs. You're justifying what you're doing with skewed logic only for your own purpose."

"No. We are doing this for organics."

She managed to make it to the ramp, slowly backing up and away from both of them. "Telling yourself that over and over won't change the facts... you're ignorant and don't understand one thing about organic and it even seems you don't get synthetic life either. You say synthetics will destroy us, what of the Geth? They never wanted to fight us, not until forced to by the Quarians and by the reapers, and now the Geth are helping the Quarians. They are helping us fight you."

The AI child looked out past her to the battle -at least she thought he was, it was hard to tell. "They will turn on life sooner or later."

"Are you even hearing yourself? Sooner or later?" She felt frustrated tears fall down her cheeks, her head was growing increasingly dizzy and she was having difficulties standing, but she couldn't, wouldn't fail now. Sure, controlling them wasn't what she wanted, nor the mass relays destroyed, but they would still have a chance. _Just a little further... _"That doesn't tell me anything other than you suspect that they will. This is why we need hope! Hope that the possibilities I opened up for them and that the better future will happen. You automatically decide things will end badly because you lack it... or don't understand it."

"You're crying," the AI child stated the obvious observation. "Such emotions, all emotions and false truths like hope are what lead to wrong decisions. Perhaps if I were hindered by them I would come to your conclusions, but then they would be emotionally charged and wrong."

That was where the line was drawn. She wasn't going to get this AI to understand because he could not feel, he didn't understand. "No. You're wrong and I'll make you see." She turned and started to run.

Every muscle screamed at her to stop, and her lungs felt like they were closing in, like she was buried in quicksand or perhaps being hugged by Wrex or Grunt. Anyone else might have given up, but her goal, the two silver orbs that were attached to the diamond structure with a fraction of the blue light that was found at the center of the structure going between them, was in her sights. Something these old delusional machines wanted couldn't possibly be good for life. Synthesis... new DNA. If that was how the life was supposed to be then they would get their on their own terms, not because some AI child thought himself God and believed it best for them. She was going to sacrifice herself for this, and it was going to be up to all those remaining to see that things were rebuilt and they somehow managed to get home... Though the thought of such a task was even more daunting then fighting the reapers it seemed. They could do it. They had to.

Time slowed before her and she felt each agonizing step, the jarring of each bone, and the slowing beating of her heart marking her end. All around her the battle for Earth and the entire galaxy raged on, and she could imagine the heat of the exploding ships around her or the chill from space. How was she even breathing? No helmet, no air. Must be from the energy of this place or something. The chrome beneath her showed her the stars, and she let herself wonder what there was after life. Was there really a God? Was there anything? So many races. So many beliefs. Who was right? Was there a right or wrong?

She was a good yard or so from the glowing blue orbs when time crashed upon her, catching up with her mind. Harbinger was on her, his arm slipping around her waist from behind and yanking her off her feet. She gasped, pain searing her side from the metal shrapnel lodged in her side. "No. No! Let me go... I choose... this one."

Harbinger turned with her in his hold to face the AI child and paused as if waiting for his answer. "The hour has grown late. It's too late for you to choose."

The AI turned, started walking back to the main path and Harbinger followed. She fought, struggled, kicked. All at a painful cost to her, but she wouldn't go out like this. But the inevitable was gradually closing in on her from all sides, her body failing where her mind rebelled and she felt herself go limp. _No... Someone, anyone... _Why did this have to rely all on her? She couldn't possibly be the only one to make it here, to change the outcome of all life. Everyone couldn't have died...

Her eye sight was dimming, the black slowly creeping in from the outside of her vision inward, but she could still see the trail of blood she left. The crimson staining the chrome in small drops. The view she saw in them, it was odd. She could see things reflected from the chrome only in red. Red fireworks. Red stars. The dark red of space. Everything around them was hushed; like she was lost in a void that carried no sound, or was it limited sound? Again time slowed. Or was it time simply fell away? Freezing her in this moment of her greatest failure? Seconds feeling like minutes, minutes feeling like lifetimes. Lifetimes became an eternity. An eternity where she could see all her short comings, a never ending nightmare that wouldn't let her go. All the death, destruction. She could hear the cries of the living, begging for salvation when none would come. Or the silent cries of the dead, roaring for revenge. But it was only a perception of the mind. Nothing could last forever. Her end was drawing ever nearer with each aching breath she pulled into her weary lungs and each step of Harbinger's rotting shell that he controlled.

As the distance between her and the pillar of light decreased, she began wondering if this was really that bad. Perhaps she was fighting how things should be. Maybe she wasn't ever supposed to change fate. This was how things were supposed to be...

_"Shepard!"_ She heard a voice calling out to her, distant.

Head foggy, unclear, she didn't notice that they had stopped. That the pillar of light wasn't getting closer. The voice called her name again and the light shifted, wavering as if it was coming from it. Was this her passing into heaven or whatever the afterlife was? She recognized the voice now, it was Garrus. Was he waiting for her? Waiting at some bar in heaven?

_"Shepard!..." _More voices called out and she recognized them all, her friends. Were they all dead? Wrex, Grunt? Garrus, Liara? Was that Edi? Could AI's even go to heaven?

Harbinger turned away from the light and the blurred vision of her surroundings changed. Beyond her legs was the platform where she had first entered this place and on it was a throng of figures she couldn't quite make out. What was happening? The next thing she knew was the hard metal as she fell into it. But even then it felt like nothing to her. Like she wasn't in her body. She lay there unmoving, feeling the cold seeping into her every cell as death clang to her, threatening to yank her under. She could hear the voices getting closer and she closed her eyes, her mind so slow, like gooey black molasses. By the time she could even think about what was going on or what was with all the chaos, she felt someone moving her, carefully turning her over.

"Oh Goddess, Shepard," Liara's voice broke through the haze of her mind like a moonbeam on a dark stormy night.

"Is she going to make it?" Was that Kasumi?

"I-I don't know. I'm going to apply an omni-gell, but... she's really bad."

"Come on ladies, we don't have time for chit-chat." She groaned as someone picked her up and over their muscular shoulders and with the surge in pain the darkness claimed her.

.~-~.

Cadence came to consciousness shortly after, better with the omni-gell, but not by much. She moaned softly, opening her eyes. The sounds around her were hectic. Guns, yelling, explosions. There was a battle happening without her and she didn't like it. Gently she propped herself up onto her arms, looking around only to find that she lay in the center of a circle of friends battling masses of husks crawling up the sides and the Harbinger controlled Illusive Man who was looking more and more like a machine than a human each time she looked at him. Wrex, Miranda, Kasumi... Everyone who had ever served under her that was alive was here, fighting to protect... her?

Garrus was suddenly by her side, his appearance haggard. She hadn't seen his suit so battle torn since that time on Omega and he got a missile to the face. "Stay down, Shepard. You're in no condition to be moving..."

"W-What's-"

"Going on?" He glanced around at the others, wondering if he could chance informing her of what was going on. "All of the hammer that rushed in with us was massacred. Liara was able to get a barrier up in time to give us some type of protection but you were too far ahead. I thought..." His voice trailed off before he cleared his throat. "We watched you and everyone else go down before rubble from one of the vehicles landed on us and her barrier fell, if not for that Harbinger would have most likely killed us. By the time I got us free we were called back to regroup and it was decided there we would do one final push with what little we had. The main force was going to distract the reapers while a special group snuck in the back."

"And the group was..." She looked around again at all her friends.

"Yup, all those who have ever fought at your side, Shepard," Kasumi said before chuckling, "Should have known you would find some way to get me into another suicide mission."

"Well, all those who are living..." Garrus added, "They thought that since all of us have faced collectors and reapers before we would be best suited to infiltrate the tower and reach the Citadel, or for whatever else was up here..."

Her mouth was dry, not just from her physical condition, but from emotions she couldn't begin to describe. "How did... the others fair?"

"Those bug you saved at the risk of my team paid off, Shepard," Gunt called out over his shoulder before ramming his fist into a husks face.

Garrus sighed, "I got this... everyone just focus." He shook his head. "Jack and her students with Samara and what little Justicar remained protected us with their barriers while the Krogen and _the rachni _kept them away from us."

"Don't forget about us!" Tali managed before having to dodge out of the way of a husk. It seemed her suit was also fighting...

"Yes, the Quarians and Geth too... guess the Geth can enter the hardware of their suits and they can fight as one." He bent forward, keeping his voice down. "I have to say, it's a rather frightening combination."

She nodded, seeing Tali in action now certainly was something else. Who knew that getting them together would create something like this?

"Oh, where's that AI child?" She looked around, searching for the AI who deemed himself God.

"AI child?" Garrus asked as if she had lost it.

"Yes, there's an AI who controls the reapers... controls all of this." She gestured around her and to space. "He wanted me to choose to destroy all synthetics, control them or use my DNA to synthesis organics and synthetics. I was trying to hack him and get him to pull the reapers back instead... rewrite his programming." Sitting up further with Garrus's help, she continued searching. "They think that if they don't harvest the most advanced races the synthetics they create will wipe out all life..."

"That's insane."

Something made her turn her attention upward. There she found the AI child perched on the diamond structure, watching them as they fought the endless horde of husks. "There! Edi, do you think you can remotely hack him and change the programming to something other than the protection of organic life at any cost?"

Edi stepped away from the battle, letting her decoy do the work as she looked up at the other AI. "Perhaps..." She paused for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I would need help, Shepard. His system is... unique... and highly advanced."

Cadence stole Garrus's sniper rifle, frustrated with her inability to help any way else. "Would having Tali and that Geth in her suit help Edi?"

"Yes... that might work." Edi nodded.

"Okay, Garrus you take their spot..."

Garrus stood but didn't move. "I'm not letting you fight, Shepard."

"I'll be safe here with them, shooting from a distance." He gave her a anxious look and she glared back. "Just go!"

Jack backed up to them. "I got this, go, get your bony ass out there."

"Fine," he grumbled as he turned, grabbing his assault rifle and joining the others in the fray.

Cadence grunted as she got in a position that was both comfortable and allowed her to line the sights up on a target. The next ten minutes were tense. The husks never stopped coming up the sides, their numbers unimaginable, and Harbinger didn't make things any easier and in the end it took a team effort to bring him down, with her last shot the one that did him in. Once he was down the four point hacking from Edi, Tali, her Geth suit, and Kasumi made great progress, but it was still difficult. The husks numbers increased even more, with other animated species controlled by the reapers and this child AI... All of it rested fully on these four shoulders, and for once it wasn't Shepards, all in the hopes that one of them would get in and change the programming of this crazed AI who was destroying everything they knew and loved.

There was no doubt in her mind that if things had been different... if the choices with the Geth had been different, they wouldn't have this chance. She had also learned from Jack that the r had saved all their hides, taking the pressure off of them, many dying so that the rest could live. One had even saved Wrex who in turn had saved Tali. It was mind boggling how so much could have been changed if she had decided to give up on Wrex or the rachni. Or if she had destroyed the Geth. Who knew, perhaps Edi might be going over to the control path and taking over the reapers herself. She was the only true synthetic among them, the only one whose body would survive the ordeal, but would she still be the same? She didn't want Edi to change. Not to mention it would still destroy the mass relays. No, she would rather die and take control herself then change Edi.

"I'm in, Shepard." Edi drew her attention. "What do you want me to do? I can shut them down, control them or rewrite them to your specifics."

Another hard decision that rested on her shoulders. There was no way she wanted Edi to control them, who knew what that would do to her. Shutting them down was most likely the safest option... But was this the reapers fault? She couldn't help but remember that each one of them was all that remained of civilizations like her own. If she had them shut down they would cease to be. There was something extremely depressing about that.

"Rewrite them, Edi. We don't know if the reapers from other galaxies might come here to start these cycles again. I trust you to know how to reprogram them so this won't happen again and that they will actually do what they were supposed to do... protect."

"Of course, Commander."

.~-~.

_After this would come some touching scenes of rebuilding. Wrex with his kids, Shepard and Garrus with them. Or whatever is your fancy. But I like this because we would get that end boss that's so horribly missing, all our choices would matter, and it would follow what the female Krogen said, in the darkest moments there is always a light or path or something. Towards the end I tried not to describe everything that was happening, just so you guys could come up with what you would imagine the background battle would be like. Also I think you can see where people could be changed depending on who you romanced and whether you're a male or female. Also depending on choices some of these people could die. I think there should be a good paragon way and a good renegade way, though how for the second I couldn't possibly tell you. I'll let all you decide._

_Sorry for any misspellings, for my DBZ stuff I have a beta but this is just my own thing._


End file.
